Ic Industries

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT IC INDUSTRIES - PAGE 5

IC Industries Inc. said it will institute a three-year systematic buy-back of its shares, acquiring approximately 500,000 shares a month beginning immediately, subject to market and financial conditions. The Chicago-based firm has approximately 107 million shares outstanding.

IC Industries Inc. of Chicago has agreed to sell its Claud S. Gordon Co. unit to Watlow Electric Manufacturing. Co. of St. Louis. Terms were withheld. Gordon, based in suburban Richmond, is a maker and distributor of thermocouple wire and related equipment. Gordon, a subsidiary of Pneumo Corp., also an IC unit, had sales this year estimated at $18 million.

The Illinois Central Gulf Railroad, a unit of IC Industries Inc., reached agreement to sell 117 miles of track in Indiana to Indianapolis Terminal Corp. Price of the line from Sullivan to Indianapolis is $5.3 million.

IC Industries Inc.'s Illinois Central Gulf Railroad signed a three-year contract with USX Corp. to ship coal, scrap and semifinished steel between USX's Gary Works and its plant and mine in Alabama. The railroad didn`t disclose terms of the agreement but called the contract its largest multiple- commodity shipping deal ever.

IC Industries Inc. said Friday it plans to spin off its Illinois Central Gulf rail unit to shareholders within the next three to six months. The diversified Chicago-based company said that when details of the planned spinoff of Illinois Central Gulf R.R. Co. are completed, directors will declare a dividend of ICG stock to IC Industries stockholders. The number of dividend shares to be granted will follow a formula yet to be determined. Frank Allston, a spokesman for IC Industries, said the plan is subject to a ruling from the Internal Revenue Service.

IC Industries Inc.'s commitment to the consumer goods business becomes stronger this week with its official name change to Whitman Corp. and a plan to expand its Pepsi-Cola bottling operations in Wisconsin. IC Industries officials announced Tuesday that it has reached an agreement to buy the Oshkosh and Wisconsin Rapids Pepsi franchises for an undisclosed amount. And beginning Thursday, the former railroad company will be publicly traded as Whitman Corp., a name that symbolizes the end of the railroad era for the $3.5 billion multinational corporation.

Pet Inc., an IC Industries Inc. company, acquired Facchin Foods Co. Ltd., a pasta manufacturer in Edmonton, for an undisclosed amount of cash. Facchin becomes part of Primo Foods Ltd., a Canadian subsidiary of St. Louis-based Pet since 1986. Primo produces a line of more than 800 Italian food products, plus Old El Paso Mexican foods and Underwood meat spreads.

IC Industries Inc. said its $250 million spinoff of the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad to shareholders may be delayed until late summer because of the Interstate Commerce Commission's decision to review the transaction. The ICC said it instituted an investigation of the spinoff as a result of protests by Venango River Corp., which bought a short-line railroad from the Illinois Central two years ago for $80 million.

Illinois Central Gulf railroad has agreed to sell a 630-mile line between Chicago and Kansas City, Mo., to the South Shore Railroad's parent company for about $80 million, sources said. Venango River Corp. intends to operate the segment as an independent short line connecting with the South Bend, Ind.-based South Shore. Spokesman for IC Industries and the South Shore declined to comment on the sale but said they expected to make a joint announcement Tuesday.